Your grandma was serving up plant-based dinners decades before it was cool, and nobody even noticed.
Before anyone was posting their Buddha bowls on Instagram or arguing about oat milk, working-class families in the 1970s were quietly eating vegan meals multiple times a week. They just called it dinner.
These weren't fancy meat substitutes or trendy grain bowls. They were budget-friendly staples that happened to be completely plant-based because, frankly, meat was expensive and you had to stretch the grocery budget.
Your grandparents were accidentally nailing the whole vegan thing while watching All in the Family. Here are seven dishes that prove plant-based eating has always been part of the American table.
1. Spaghetti with marinara sauce
Every family had their version. Maybe your mom added mushrooms, maybe she threw in some oregano from a shaker can. The point is, a huge pot of pasta with tomato sauce fed six people for about three dollars.
Nobody was thinking about the environmental impact of their dinner. They were thinking about making it to Friday. But that giant bowl of spaghetti you ate while doing homework? Completely vegan, assuming nobody grated Parmesan on top.
The beauty was in its simplicity. Canned tomatoes, garlic, maybe some basil if you were fancy. It filled you up, tasted good, and left enough money for other necessities. Peak accidental veganism.
2. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
The absolute workhorse of school lunches everywhere. White bread, Skippy, and Welch's grape jelly. Done. Millions of kids ate these every single day without anyone writing think pieces about plant-based protein.
Sure, it wasn't exactly gourmet. But peanut butter gave you protein and fat, the jelly gave you quick energy, and the whole thing cost pennies. Parents could make five sandwiches in about two minutes flat.
Looking back, the PB&J was basically the original grab-and-go vegan meal. No refrigeration needed, infinitely packable, and universally accepted. Your lunch box was more progressive than you realized.
3. Baked beans on toast
This one was huge in working-class households, especially those with British roots. A can of beans, some toast, maybe a little margarine. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner solved in five minutes.
Beans gave you protein and fiber. Toast gave you carbs. The whole meal probably cost less than a quarter per serving. And yeah, most canned baked beans back then were vegan, just molasses and tomato sauce doing their thing.
People ate this because it was fast and filling, not because they were making ethical choices about animal agriculture. But the result was the same. Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest ones.
4. Rice and beans (a thousand variations)
Whether your family called it red beans and rice, rice and pintos, or something else entirely, this combination showed up on dinner tables across America. It was cheap, it stretched, and it kept you full until morning.
The magic was that rice and beans together form a complete protein. Your body gets all the amino acids it needs. Nutritionists love this combo now, but back then it was just what you made when money was tight.
Every culture has their version. Add some spices, maybe some onions and peppers, and you've got a meal. No one was calling it plant-based. They were calling it Tuesday.
5. Potato soup (the thin kind)
Not the loaded baked potato soup with bacon and sour cream. The other kind. Potatoes, water, onions, maybe some celery if you had it. Salt and pepper. That was dinner.
It sounds depressing until you remember that potatoes are actually incredibly nutritious. They've got vitamin C, potassium, and enough calories to keep you going. Add enough of them to a pot and you've fed your whole family.
This was poverty cooking at its finest, but it was also accidentally vegan. Sometimes constraints lead to solutions we'd never find otherwise. Your great-grandma knew what she was doing.
6. Fried potatoes and onions
Slice up some potatoes, slice up an onion, throw them in a pan with oil. Cook until everything's golden and crispy. Serve with ketchup or hot sauce. That's the whole recipe.
This showed up as breakfast, dinner, or a side dish. It used ingredients that kept well and didn't need refrigeration. In the days before every home had a reliable fridge, that mattered a lot.
Was it fancy? Absolutely not. Was it vegan? Completely. Did it taste amazing when you were hungry? You better believe it. Sometimes the best meals are the ones that don't try too hard.
7. Oatmeal with sugar and margarine
Before overnight oats became an Instagram trend, people were eating hot oatmeal for breakfast because it cost almost nothing. A big container of rolled oats lasted forever and fed the whole family for weeks.
Most families made it with water, not milk, because milk was for drinking or saving for coffee. A spoonful of sugar, a pat of margarine, and you had breakfast. Margarine back then was usually vegan by default.
It kept you full until lunch, it was warm on cold mornings, and kids would actually eat it. The fact that it happened to be plant-based was just a bonus nobody was tracking. Function over philosophy, every single time.
Final thoughts
The thing about these meals is that nobody was trying to make a statement. They were just feeding their families with what they had. No moral superiority, no lifestyle brand, no hashtags.
But looking back, these dishes prove something important. Plant-based eating isn't some new invention or elite trend. It's been part of working-class cooking forever, born out of necessity and common sense.
Maybe the future of vegan food isn't in fancy restaurants or expensive meat alternatives. Maybe it's in remembering that simple, affordable, plant-based meals have always been right there on our tables. We just forgot to notice.
